A system is operating wherein images picked up by a video camera are registered into a server through the Internet such that they can be suitably read out and utilized when necessary.
In the system mentioned, an image picked up by a user using a video camera is registered into a server, for example, through such a process as illustrated in flow charts of FIGS. 1 and 2.
In particular, first at step S1, the user will access the server, for example, from a personal computer through the Internet. Then at step S2, the personal computer uploads image data into an in-box prepared by the server in advance for registering image data of users.
At step S3, the personal computer acquires, in response to an input from the user, the name of an album into which the image data uploaded by the process at step S2, and transmits the name of the album to the server. At step S4, the personal computer acquires information which designates an image to be moved to the album designated by the process at step S3 from the in-box uploaded by the process at step S2 in response to an input from the user, and transmits the acquired information to the server.
The server executes such a process as illustrated in the flow chart of FIG. 2 in accordance with such a process of the personal computer as described above.
When the server is accessed from the personal computer at step S11, it records, at step S12, the image data transferred thereto from the personal computer through the Internet by the process at step S2 into an in-box built therein.
When the album name is transmitted from the personal computer by the process at step S3, the server receives the album name and produces an album of the designated name at step S13. At step S14, the server executes a process of extracting the image designated from the personal computer by the process at step S4 from the image data recorded into the in-box by the process at step S12 and moving the extracted image into the album produced by the process at step S13.
As such processes are executed repetitively, images designated by the user are recorded into the album of the name designated by the user.
In the conventional system, after image data are recorded once into the in-box of the server, an album name is inputted from the personal computer such that an album of the name is produced by the server side, and the image data of the in-box are transferred to and recorded into the album. Accordingly, for example, in such a case that it is tried to register image data from a terminal apparatus of the portable type such as a video tape recorder integrated with a camera or a digital still camera, since such a terminal apparatus of the portable type as just mentioned normally includes no keyboard or the like, it is difficult to input characters rapidly. Therefore, the conventional system has a subject in that it is poor in operability.
The conventional system has another subject in that also the period of time within which a connection to the server remains established is long and a high communication cost is required.